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Welcome to ValveTime

The number one place on the internet for Valve game discussion, news, and a community full of the best Valve fans.

Valve

About Valve Software

Valve is an entertainment software and technology company founded in 1996 by former Microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Based in Bellevue, Washington, the company first became famous with the 1998 release of its debut title, Half-Life, which has received worldwide critical acclaim.

The Valve 'Head'

Valve soon expanded the Half-Life franchise with a sequel and Half-Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2.
New games were also released such as zombie shooters Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, the
multiplayer combat franchise Team Fortress 2, the #1 online action game Counter-Strike and the award-winning puzzlers Portal
and Portal 2.

In addition to producing best selling entertainment titles,
Valve is a developer of leading-edge technologies including
Steam. Steam has quickly become the world's largest online
gaming platform. Steam guarantees instant access to more than
1,800 game titles and connects its 35 million active users to
each other with community features. Through Steam, fans can
easily buy, play, share, modify, and build communities around
Valve products as well as titles from other independent game
studios.

In addition to Steam, there is Source, their custom built game
engine which all their games since Half-Life 2 have taken
advantage of. Its sophisticated character animation, advanced
AI, real-world physics, shader-based rendering, and super
extensibility have made it one of the most flexible,
comprehensive, and powerful game development environments
available.

Valve Timeline

1996

Gabe and Mike Harrington fly to Texas to meet with id
software.

August 24th,
Mike Harrington and Gabe Newell form Valve Software.
Company documents are signed on Gabe Newells wedding day.

August 26th, Team Fortress is released as a Quake mod.

1997

May 27th,
Sierra announces plans to publish Half-Life.

June 19th-21st, Half-Life is demonstrated at E3 trade show.

October 2nd, Half-Life delay is officially announced. First quarter 1998
release date is set. Half-Life is scrapped and restarted.

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About Us

In March of 2003, a mystic crowbar appeared in Edge magazine, signifying that a long-awaited sequel to Half-Life was approaching. Munro formed this site almost immediately, as a place for people to share every snippet of information available about the upcoming sequel, as well as discuss it with other fans of the series.